Just back
from the GT. Had a fun weekend, and learned a lot. Same as usual. Brief Bat
Reps and a summary.
Game One
Hammer and
Anvil, Seize Ground 5 objectives. Against a drop podding Space Marine list.
Vulcan, Lysander, 1 full tac squad, 1 half tac squad, a scout squad, 2 Iron
Clads, 1 normal Dread, 2 MM Attack Bikes, 2 Auto Laz Preds and a Thunder Fire
Cannon. My opponents was somebody I have played before (at the gaming day
report a while back). In that game he was playing Dark Eldar and had appalling
luck. Things didn’t go very well this game either!
My Opponent
had first turn. I spread out all my squads and pretty much filled up my
deployment zone in an attempt to push his pods back as far as possible.
However, I made a mistake. I left a gap over on my left flank. It was tight,
and the risk was he might scatter off the board…you can see where this is
going?
First turn my
opponent decides to pod Lysander and a Tac squad into the gap, he scatters of
the board and rolls a “1” on the mishap table…..! This is a huge blow 400pts of
his army destroyed first turn. I offer to let him have a “misplaced” result
instead, but nobly he declines. His luck did not improve. It included Vulcan
being killed by Orks, all his Twin Linked melta guns missing repeatedly, and
his Iron Clads being one shotted by Rail Guns.
I think I’m a
jinx! Win to me.
Learning
points – you can really spread a big unit of boys out a long way, but it
makes them really cumbersome. They spent a lot of time getting in the way! I
need to be more careful with my deep strike defence. While it worked out for me
(!) I should not have left the gap. Ironclads do not like Railguns.
Oh and
Thunder Fire Cannons are pretty good now!
Game 2
But of
course, winning your first game pushes you up the tables….!
Next game was
against Necrons. Stormlord, big blob of warriors, some cryptecs, 3 night
scythes with 5 guys inside and 9 (9!) spiders.
Long story
short…. I just could not kill enough scarabs. I tried to hold them up with the
Boyz, but he just kept spawning more and more. At one point he was rolling 108
dice to hit in a combat with my Broadsides. It did not end well!
However, I
also made a huge mistake. I moved my hammerheads too far forward, which allowed
him to zoom on with the night scythes, get out the guys and Gauss them to
death. While the Dpods on my Hammerheads make them great at range (3+ cover),
flyers can close that distance really quickly if you don’t block them with
something to keep the flyer more that 12” away. If I had saved the Hammerheads
I might have had a chance at killing the spyders and slowing down the scarab
production. But then again….with 9 of them I doubt I could have done much about
it.
Learning
points – scarabs are horrible. I thought my Boyz squads were tar pits…they are
nothing compared to scarabs. I really need something to deal with this sort of
horde army. Maybe burna boyz as bubble wrap… Overwatch from that would hurt the
swarm.
Still it was
a good game against a fun opponent.
Game 3
Guard. Blob
squad, with Librarian, manticore, psykers, 6 Hydra Defence Platforms, and 3
Vendettas. Big guns never tire, Vanguard Strike.
Hmmm… I can’t
make my mind up about this game. I’ll say up front, I really didn’t enjoy it.
It was nothing to do with my opponent, he was a nice guy, but his list was just
so brutal that after turn one (and we will get to why!) I felt I never had a chance. He just had a counter to everything, and I had a
counter to nothing….!
So, anyway,
he got first turn. He set up in the corner, hiding his manticore and spreading
out the Hydra Platforms. My warlord trait was the one that lets me re-roll reserves. With that trait, and all
those auto cannons,
not to mention the manticore, I decided to keep all my vehicles off the
table. The plan was to come in off the table edge with the Hammerheads,
opposite his set up, and use the Plasma Cannons to kill the platforms. With AV13, and a 3+ cover save I thought I had a good chance of taking out the platforms. I also planned to get the Firewarrior out and rapid fire the platforms (they re only AV10). I
reckoned my Broadsides could stay on the table behind the Aegis, and weather
the fire with their 2+ and 4 shield drones, and havea good chance of poping the manticore.
So first shot
of the game he lands 3 Manticore pie plates on the Broadsides. One scatters
onto the Big Mek. He kills the Bik Mek and I proceed to roll four ones in a row
for the Broadside saves, killing 2 Broadsides the Commander and a Shield Drone.
The last guy runs off the board…..! Next turn when my Hammerheads and devilfish
come on, he explains the Auto targeting rule, which allows him to ignore jink saves, and that the interceptor rule, which lets him fire at anything coming
in from reserve (I thought it was just things that deep struck). He
proceeds to autocannon my Hammerheads and Devilfish to death (admittedly over a
few turns, but the outcome was never in doubt). And that was before he even
started with his Vendettas. I think i destroyed 2 Hydra Platforms all game! To be fair, he did offer me the chance to redeploy the Devilfish and the Hammerheads once he explained Interceptor and Auto targetting, but I didn't think that was right, I should know the rules.
These are the
games I find the most Frustrating – where you lose and you just can’t see how
you could have won. Maybe if my Broadsides had survived, I would have had a
chance, but I doubt it. Once his Vendettas came on the board the Broadsides
would have been toast. The only thing I can think of is if I had taken 2 squads
of Broadsides. I might have been able to take down the Hydras before the
skimmers came on, and then simply gone to ground behind the Aegis and snap
fired the Railguns hoping for a 6.
What I wont
do is complain about him taking a “broken” list. It’s a GT – that’s what you
should expect, and what he had was within the codex, and within the rules.
So that's the first three games. End of day one. If I had any chance of qualifying, I would have to win at least 2 of my games tomorrow, perhaps all three.
More reports tomorrow.
EYIG
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